The New England Journal of Medicine last month published studies warning that aggressive efforts to treat anemia in kidney-disease patients with the drug erythropoietin, or EPO, as recommended by the National Kidney Foundation, appear to increase the risk of heart failure and the need for dialysis. But the medical journal spiked an opinion piece commissioned from one of its senior writers that was critical of the foundation's reliance on multimillion-dollar donations from the companies that make such drugs.